“And the rest of us,” Leno said. The other men murmured loudly in agreement.
“I think I can take Bokojin,” Saba said. He pointed toward Newrose, next to the door. In the Common Speech, he said, “This man is the spokesman for the Council of the Middle Planets. The Mendoz’ has arranged a peace with him. I told him we only want the honor of the Empire, not revenge. As an earnest of that I’m giving him the Martian general we took prisoner.”
Leno said, “What is he giving us?”
Saba made a careless shrug. Ketac came in, with General Hanse just behind him.
Paula straightened. She let go of Tanuojin. Hanse had shrunk by fifty pounds. He walked awkwardly, slowly, not like a man in the dark: as if he were drugged. Tanuojin got her sleeve and pulled her arm behind her and held her. Hanse stopped between Saba and the door. Newrose went to him and spoke to him, touched him, and walked around him. Hanse stood speechless, moveless, unseeing.
“What happened?” Paula said to Tanuojin.
“It didn’t work.”
Leno had come deep into the room. His jaw stuck out. “What assurances are they giving you?”
“They’ll keep the agreement,” Paula said. “As long as it’s in their best interests.”
The Merkhiz Akellar stamped toward her. His gaze swiveled from Saba to Tanuojin. “Why do you trust her? Didn’t she double over on us in the Earth, that time? If you ask me, she’s one of them.”
Saba had gone off to the side of the room. David was with him. She tugged on Tanuojin’s grip and he freed her.
She said, “Leno, I won’t say who betrayed who on the Earth. Newrose is a Martian. You know what the Martians did to my Planet.” She went toward him three or four steps. Everybody was watching her.
Merkhiz said, “This smells rotten. Why would you help us?”
“Because you’re the only people I have left.” She stared up at his broad face. “I didn’t choose this, Akellar. All my friends are dead, because of you and the Martians.”
He said nothing for a moment. His round eyes gleamed. Finally he said, “From what I’ve heard of this arrangement, they’re giving us nothing but promises.”
She went past him, making him turn to keep up with her. Now she was facing Tanuojin, past Leno’s shoulder, and she spoke to him. “If you want to do it your way, do it your way. They’ll fight, you’ll have to go from dome to dome beating them down, you’ll be stuck here until the Planet comes around again. Let Bokojin be the Prima. I don’t care.” She turned her back on him and Leno and went over to Newrose.
“What’s going on?” Newrose said, low.
“Jabber-jabber.” Hanse’s slack face hung before her, his skin draped in folds over his cheeks. She waved her fingers under his eyes. “Hanse.” She patted his cheek. “Hanse!”
“He’s catatonic,” Newrose said. His lips tightened, grim.
“Take him out.”
Newrose like a nurse led the general away. She stood watching them maneuver through the door. She could guess what had happened. David touched her arm.
“Papa wants to see you.” His hand lay on her forearm. “Not all your friends are dead, Mother.” His voice trembled.
Tanuojin was leaving, Junna behind him. David tugged on her sleeve and she went to Saba.
“I don’t know what happened,” Newrose said. His face was rosy from the chilly air. Paula walked faster. Like a little terrier the Martian hurried along beside her. “Hanse can’t talk or think, the man can scarcely move.”
She led him into the corridor to Saba’s suite, lined with Styths. Leno had an office here, too, somewhere. She stopped at the table that blocked the way, and the aide sitting behind it got up and went to tell Saba that she was there.
“What do you want me to do?” she said to Newrose.
“Protest. Whatever they did to him was definitely contrary to all the rules regarding prisoners of war.”
“Tsk.” The book open on the table was the watch roster. She skewed around to read who Saba was meeting. Tanuojin had taken Ybix to the Earth. The aide came back.
“The Prima will see you, Mendoz’.”
Newrose stepped between her and the door. “Miss Mendoza, I’m serious about this.”
“Newrose,” she said, “you are a funny man. I was Hanse’s prisoner for six months. I have no sympathy for him.” She went past him down the corridor.
Saba was in his bedroom. Ketac let her in. He mumbled at her; his breath smelled foul. She said, “You don’t look so daisy-fresh,” and went past him into the room.
“I feel awful.”
The overstuffed chairs had been dragged back. At the foot of the bed was a table, up on blocks to fit a Styth, where Saba sat eating. David was waiting beside him to serve him. The Prima wiped his mouth on a white cloth. “You see,” he told Ketac, “she stops drinking before she makes herself sick. Vida, bring her a chair.”
“You were as drunk as I was,” Ketac said.
“I am never drunk.”
Paula snorted. She climbed up into the chair David brought her. Saba picked over the remnants of his meal, nudged the plate away, and twisted around in the chair. “You have those orders,” he said to Ketac.
“Yes, Prima.” Ketac went down the room to the door.
When he was gone, she said, “Ketac has done very well.”
“I can depend on him. Vida, sometimes, but Vida talks back to me.” David was bending past him to pour water into his cup, and Saba swatted him on the backside. “He even talks back to Tanuojin.”
“Sometimes he’s wrong,” David said.
“He’s your son,” Saba told her. “Down to his bootsoles.”
“What happened to General Hanse?” she said. David put a cup down before her. He held the fat-bellied jug in his other hand.
“It’s just water,” he said.
“I’ll suffer.”
The boy poured her cup full. Saba was toying with the white cloth on the table. “Hanse. Tanuojin tried to take him, the way he took Dr. Savenia, but Hanse fought, and his heart stopped with Tajin in him.”
David put the jug on the table. He seemed uninterested in what his father was saying. She guessed he had been there: Saba took him everywhere.
“It was hell,” Saba said to her. “I thought he was gone.”
She drew the Earth-sign in the frost of her cup. That was safe. Even if Hanse got well enough to talk, the Martians would think he was crazy.
“This deal you made with Newrose,” he said. “You want the rAkellaron to take the place of the Council. That won’t work. You know that, don’t you?”
“It isn’t meant to work,” she said. “It’s meant to look good, that’s all.”
“Then who does the real job?”
“I will.”
He slapped the table. His cup jumped. “What about Tanuojin? He doesn’t like this arrangement at all.”
“He’s going back to Uranus, isn’t he?” She crossed her legs on the seat of her chair. “Then he’ll use Dr. Savenia. You and I can handle him. Newrose can handle her.”
He got up and walked toward the door. Paula reached across the table for his dish. He had eaten all the meat. Cubes of vegetables stood in the pool of red sauce.
“You’ll have to go up front for me in the Chamber,” she said.
“That’s who I am, isn’t it? I’m pretty, I smile, I’m everybody’s best face.”
She used a scrap of potato to soak up the sauce. “What’s wrong with you? I thought you liked being the front.”
“Sometimes Tanuojin treats me as if that’s all I am.” He came back to his chair. “You’re the only one of us who knows enough about the Middle Planets to make this work.”
“It will work,” she said. She ate the potato.